This invention relates to visor-mounted sun blocker discs for motor vehicles, and more particularly to a sun disc-type blocker which may be easily attached to and detached from a sun visor by one hand.
Disc-type sun blockers have been suggested for use as a sun visor or as an attachment to a sun visor for motor vehicles, as a motoring aid to block the direct rays of the sun from the driver's eyes. Usually, a sun-blocking disc is mounted on a sun visor so that it can be moved with respect to the sun visor, and located to prevent the sun from blinding the operator or driver of the motor vehicle. The discs are usually made of material which is totally opaque to the rays of the sun and are of a size, in relation to the position of the driver, sufficient to block the image of the sun and yet provide substantial vision around the disc periphery where the sun's rays are not objectionable.
While adjustable sun-blocking discs can be helpful and useful to the operator of a motor vehicle, and improve the ability to operate the vehicle safely in those conditions in which a low-angle sun is directly in view in a windshield, such devices are not in general use. The lack of use is believed to be due primarily to the fact that complicated and expensive means have been suggested by which the disc type sun blocker may be moved along the length of the visor and pivoted between a storage position behind the visor and from side to side as necessary to bring the disc into a blocking relation to the sun's rays. The complexity and cost of such support and attaching devices have been a deterrent to the economical manufacture and use of such devices.
Proposed mounting arrangements have included permanent or semi-permanent attachment apparatus, often in the form of elongated tracks or other supports which have a portion permanently affixed or attached to the visor. Such tracks then provide for the mounting of a slidable member and for the attachment of the disc on an lever extending from the slidable member. Examples of sun discs and sun shields which are mounted in combination with visor supported tracks include Williams, U.S. Pat. No. 2,894,576 issued Jul. 14, 1959; Girard. U.S. Pat. No. 3,877,745 issued Apr. 15, 1975; Honor, Sr., U.S. Pat. No. 3,428,360 issued Feb. 18, 1969 and Pendlebury, U.S. Pat. No. 2,941,839 of Jun. 21, 1960. In these complicated arrangements, the sun disc cannot be readily attached or detached such as with one hand nor can it readily be moved along the visor. Apart from the inconvenience of use, the expense of the attachment apparatus and the necessity to tailor each for use with a particular type of visor has inhibited the success of this highly useful and effective safety concept.